Goebbels' maxim
Goebbels' maxim is a saying commonly attributed to Joseph Goebbels, propaganda minister to Hitler during Nazi Germany.
Though the actual text of the saying varies depending on the account, the premise of the maxim is that if one tells a lie, but repeatedly states it with absolute conviction, the likelihood exists that eventually the masses will believe it to be truth.[1][2]
The "big lie" is outlined in Alfred Rosenberg's Myth of the 20th Century.
The Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin had a similar statement to Goebbels' maxim, "A lie told often enough becomes the truth." It is commonly misunderstood in the English-speaking world. The original context refers to the "stab in the back", or what the Nazi's claimed was the "myth" that Germany had been defeated in the First World War. Germany had never signed a surrender document, and no German territory was occupied when a ceasefire or Armistice was declared, and the German Army in fact was standing on foreign territory. The Nazis alleged the "Jewish-controlled press" repeated "the big lie" over and over again that Germany had lost. While it is true the Nazis became advocates of using "the big lie " (Hitler had even written a whole chapter on how to use propaganda to brainwash millions in Mein Kampf[3]), Angelo-American anti-Nazi propagandists twisted the context from its original meaning as outlined in Mein Kampf to state that the Nazi's invented "the big lie", whereas the Nazis actually blamed "the Jews" for "the big lie" that "Germany had lost" the First World War.
Demagogues, dictators, and fanatical ideologists all try to convince audiences that their reasoning is logical and sound. In reality, they abuse logic, twist, slant, and distort the reasoning process in whatever ways they believe they can without detection. Some of these speakers believe that the bigger the misrepresentation they can get away with, the greater the triumph. Since propagandists have already made up their minds, they are not really searching for truth. Such people do not attempt to use logic in an honest search for truth, but only with the intent to deceive more effectively.[4]
Other examples of Goebbels maxim or the big lie in more recent years are Iraqi WMD, the "Heavenly Hundred", Trump-Russia collusion, Covid came from eating bats, Ivermectin is horse medication, the 2020 presidential election, the J6 "insurrection", and Russia's "unprovoked" war in Ukraine.
References
- ↑ David Robertson (2008). The Dawkins Letters: Challenging the Atheist Myths. Christian Focus Publications, 61. ISBN 978-1-84550-261-4.
- ↑ Jerry Bergman (2012). Hitler and the Nazi Darwinian Worldview: How the Nazi Eugenic Crusade for a Superior Race Caused the Greatest Holocaust in World History. Joshua Press, 195. ISBN 978-1-894400-49-7. “Goebbels...His chief propaganda theory was "the Big Lie": if something is repeated often enough, people will believe it no matter how false. This technique worked very well in disenfranchising Jews. Goebbels took control of, not only the press, but also radio, film, theater, music, literature, and publishing, purging Jews and all opposition to Nazism from them.”
- ↑ The original title was My Four and a Half Years of Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice, the lies being that Germany had lost; however with 2 million fresh American troops standing in France, the German Army was on the verge of a massive battlefield defeat. The title of the book was shortened to Mein Kampf or My Struggle.
- ↑ (1993) A Christian's Guide to Critical Thinking. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 183–4. ISBN 1-59752-661-4. Retrieved on 16 February 2012.
